h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dear Peter,

I suggest it’s time we brought our colloquy to an end, especially as we’re dealing with events outside the war itself.

You have the advantage of closer study and fuller knowledge of the events and sources, and your have drawn my attention to things I had forgotten or never knew, for which I am glad. All students of Chamberlain suffer one disadvantage, however: his death deprived us of his own mature recollections and reflections on the times.

My general view of him, however unorthodox at present, is unchanged. We must be content to leave him in the hands of future generations of historians.

On a more personal level, I have read your account of wartime Italy. What diverse horrors human conflict produces! Wartime London was bad, but we always had enough to eat, and we could trust our neighbours and people in uniform.

On an even more personal level, I’m sorry you had a rough time on ‘Monarch of Bermuda’. In her pre-war days as a super-luxury liner she was the pride of the fleet owned by the company for which my father worked. Throughout the war it was his job to ensure that as the ships left UK ports they were in good order on the nautical side; but he had nothing to do with accommodation, and did not always know where they were going or why.

‘The Monarch’, as we called her, survived the war and had a short career taking emigrants from the UK to Australia before being destroyed by a fire which broke out while she was in port.

A large proportion of the ships which he used to see off on the Atlantic crossing did not survive, and I can recall the sorrowful evenings when he came home and announced that another of ‘his’ ships had been sunk, sometimes taking with her crew members whom we had known personally.

War is horrible – still.

To end on a more cheerful note, let me express a wish that you have a happy Christmas and a peaceful, healthful and productive new year.

With all good wishes,
Roy.

Dear Roy

Life on the Monarch was sheer bliss compared with what lay ahead of me in 1944.

A Happy Christmas to you and your family.

Peter